US Cyber Monday online sales to reach record US$7 billion

American consumers were on track to spend US$ 7.8 billion in online shopping on Cyber Monday, up 18.3 percent from last year, according to Adobe Analytics, which tracks 80 percent of online transactions at 100 of the largest retailers in the US. Cyber Monday, which falls on the first Monday after Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, is considered the biggest online shopping day of the year.

Last year, it hit a record US$ 6.6 billion in online sales.

With growing online sales, Black Friday might be stealing Cyber Monday’s thunder. Online sales for Black Friday reached US$ 6.22 billion, up 23 percent compared with last year.

Smartphone-enabled purchases amounted to US$ 2.1 billion, accounting for one third of the overall sales.

Figures from Internet Retailer, a publisher of e-commerce news and analysis, predicted that the total amount to be spent over the period between Thanksgiving Day and Cyber Monday will reach US$ 21.6 billion.

For the whole holiday season, which will last until end of December, online sales could hit a record US$ 124 billion, up by 15 percent from last year, Adobe Analytics said.

Figures from market research firm eMarketer put overall US holiday online sales at around US$ 123 billion, which accounts for 12 percent of the estimated 1 trillion retail sales for this holiday shopping season.

According to an annual survey, US consumers will spend an average of US$ 1,007 dollars during this holiday shopping season, up 4.1 percent from last year, the National Retail Federation said earlier.